I found my tribe! After exploring organizations looking down the road called “creative aging” I discovered the National Center for Creative Aging. In February 2016 I attended their Symposium in Los Angeles. That is when I was introduced to a group of talented, creative innovators working on a local and national basis changing attitudes towards aging through creative and expressive arts.

YES I had found my tribe!

NextStage Productions is the fulfillment of a dream to foster an understanding of the vital relationship between creative expression and healthy aging and to developing programs that build on that understanding. Our NSP staff including Kathryn Adkins from the Cabrillo Theater Arts Dept. has developed a successful Summer Performing Arts Camp at Cabrillo in its 5th year. With the leadership of Carole English, Production Coordinator, NextStage has a troupe of singing and dancing troubadours who entertain at healthcare facilities to hundreds of individuals each year. The newest area of interest for us is the health and well being of our community members. Thanks to Kathleen McBurney we now have entered the second full year of servicing people with memory loss through TimeSlips.This wonderful program, created by Anne Basting, uses improvisational storytelling to engage with individuals dealing with dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease.

My tribe is growing and marvelous opportunities are exploding all over the country. I intend to seek more opportunities to learn and bring back to Santa Cruz other new concepts for creative aging.

Thank You for supporting our activities, by attending our first full scale musical Bingo the winning musical. This fund raising event will help fund our work. Come back a second time and bring your friends. The show is delightful, the mature cast is amazing, the director is outstanding, and the “bingo” is FUN….and you might win.